


will we think about tomorrow like we think about now

by fortunehasgivenup



Series: prompt fills [23]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24390082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: When Rio calls out to Beth one day at school, she's not expecting him to ask her out in order to make their respective exes jealous. She's certainly not expecting tolikehim.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: prompt fills [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608919
Comments: 39
Kudos: 262





	will we think about tomorrow like we think about now

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous said:
> 
> Hii! I love your prompts so much, you’re such a good writer! I just read your high school bro au and ugh it was perfect I’m obsessed with high school aus. Could you write one where Rio is in a pretty tumultuous relationship (always fighting, making each other jealous, etc.) and they break up but to get back at her he gets her complete opposite (good girl Beth Marks) to fake date him but he actually ends up liking Beth?

There's no one in sight as Beth walks between the bleachers surrounding the football field on Friday during lunch.

“Well, well, well,” a deep voice drawls from behind her, alerting her to the fact that she’s not as alone as she thought, “if it isn’t Elizabeth Marks.”

Beth turns in a circle, coming face to ankle with someone sitting partway up the bleachers. She tilts her head back, covering her eyes from the sun, so it takes her a minute to realize who it is that’s talking to her. As soon as she does, she drops her hand and steps back.

Why the hell is Rio Garcia talking to her? 

“I’m not doing your homework,” she tells him.

He laughs and Beth notices that his usual constant companion - Tasha - is nowhere in sight. Had they broken up again? Beth couldn’t keep it straight. One second, everyone was saying there’d been a big blow-up at a party over the weekend, then Rio’d drive up to school with Tasha in the passenger seat of his car and walk her to class, kissing her goodbye until a teacher told him to get out.

“I’m a grade below you, but I’m still in your math class. Why the fuck would I need help?” he asks, sipping from a water bottle.

“Then what do you want?” Beth tugs on the strap of her backpack.

“C’mere,” he says, sliding over and patting the section of bench he’s just vacated. 

Despite her better judgement, Beth climbs up and takes the offered seat. “What do you want?” she repeats her question.

“You and Boland broke up, yeah?”

Beth stiffens. It’s still pretty fresh. Like a week ago fresh. She’d caught him making out with Amber at a party. To make it even worse, the party had been for Beth’s birthday. There was a reason she was hiding out by the football field during lunch.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Rio says. 

“That mean you and Tasha broke up again?” Beth shoots back.

He grins at her. “Let’s just say we’re not together at the moment,” he replies. 

“And how does any of this relate to me?” 

Rio watches her. “You want to get back at him?”

Beth’s taken aback and frowns at him. “What?”

“Want to remind him what he’s missing? Make him feel like shit for treating you like he did?” Rio asks.

And she does. She really, really does. She’s had to spend most of her time just avoiding her classmates because she can’t stand their pitying looks. And all of it just made her so…mad. She just wants to lash out at Dean, at anyone who even looks at her.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Rio says.

His plan is simple, once he lays it out for Beth. They’re going to date. Or at least, they’re going to pretend to date. Apparently Tasha thought that flirting with some college guys the weekend before would make Rio jealous. So they’d broken up and now she was going around loudly saying that she had a date with some college sophomore. Rio wanted to remind Tasha that she wasn’t the only girl at school.

“Why me?” Beth asks him. “I’m nothing like Tasha.”

He laughs. “Yeah, that’s kind of the point. You think Boland’ll take it well if you and me hook up?”

And no, Dean would not take it well. He’d probably take it as a betrayal that she’d not only moved on, but she’d moved on to his complete opposite in so many ways.

“We’ll go to the game together,” Rio says.

“You’ll go to a football game?” Beth asks. She doesn’t think he’s ever gone to one of those.

He grimaces, but nods. “Yeah, it’s a good place to be seen. Plus there’s a party after.”

“I can’t go to a party,” Beth tells him. “I have to head home and look after my sister.”

He studies her. “Parents ain’t home?”

“Something like that,” Beth replies.

He chews on his lip, considering. “How old is she?”

Which is how Beth winds up dropping Annie off at Rio’s house for a sleepover with his sister. They’re the same age, just in different grades because of where their birthdays fall.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Beth asks Rio’s parents after putting down Annie’s backpack. “I know that she can be a handful.”

Rio’s father laughs. “Have you met my son?” he jokes, shooting Rio a look. 

Beth watches as Annie and Rio’s younger sister, Nadia, suss each other out. 

“You can go now,” Annie says to Beth after a moment. 

Nadia giggles. “Yeah, Rio, you and your _girlfriend_ ,” Nadia says as Annie ohhhhhs, “better get going.”

Rio points to his sister. “Very funny,” he drawls, grabbing his jacket. 

“Don’t stay out too late,” Rio’s mom calls out before they get to the front door. 

Beth’s cheeks are burning, worried at the implication in the warning, but when she glanced back to Rio’s mom, she just looks serious. 

“I don’t want you driving tired,” she warns. “It’s very dangerous.”

“Ma,” Rio sighs, “leave it.”

“Drive safe,” she tells them, giving Rio a sharp look before he shuts the door behind them.

“Your parents are nice,” Beth says carefully.

“They’re a pain in the ass,” he mutters before going towards the driver’s side of the car. He says it affectionately though, something that relaxes Beth. The more and more her own parents crumble apart, the angrier it makes her when others take it for granted. It had been a point of contention with Dean - the way he’d acted towards his mom. She gave him everything and Dean always acted like it was disturbing him. 

She’s never ridden in a car like Rio’s. It’s old - even has a tape deck, but she can tell that it’s well maintained. 

“You like cars, huh?” Beth comments out of a need to fill the silence.

He hums. “Yeah. Uncle’s a mechanic. We’ve been working on her since I was like twelve.”

“Her?” 

Rio grins. “Yeah, her. Cars and boats are women. Don’t you know anything?”

“Continue,” Beth says, rolling her eyes.

Rio taps his fingers on the wheel. “Not much else to tell. I turned sixteen, my uncle handed over the keys and said to take care of her.”

Beth runs her hands over the vinyl seat. It’s nice, she thinks, to have such a physical reminder of what one is capable of doing. A lasting one. Sure, she can bake and cook and sew, but once the fruits of those labours are consumed, there’s no sign of them. Not like this car.

The school parking lot is busy, but Rio seems to know exactly where to go to find an open spot without having to drive up and down every row of cars. As it is, he pulls into the spot right before Mrs. Adams can. She honks at them, but Beth doesn’t feel all that bad. Jillian Adams had pushed Annie off the swings a few weeks earlier and then Annie had gotten in trouble for getting mud on her when Mrs. Adams complained.

They get out and Rio waits by the front of the car for Beth to come around.

Beth lets Rio twine their fingers together as they walk through the parking lot even though it feels like everyone’s looking at her.

“Chill,” he murmurs. “You look like you’re so stiff, I could snap off a piece of you.”

“How am I supposed to chill?” Beth hisses. “I don’t exactly have acting experience.”

They step through the gate that leads to the bleachers, which are nearly full, and Rio slides closer to her. “Just picture everybody naked,” he whispers into her ear. Beth shivers, a little bit because of his words, a bit because of how his breath tickles the back of her neck and a whole lot because the first person that she thinks of is _him_.

“Very funny,” Beth says over her shoulder, leading the way onto the side of the field. She’s about to start up the side set of stairs, but Rio stops her and draws her towards the centre of the field. 

Oh god, he’s making a show of it. This wasn’t part of the - okay, it was, but still! Beth imagines that she could fry an egg on her cheeks as Rio walks with her up the stairs slowly, saying hi to some people that he knows. 

Finally, he lets her take a seat, but rather than taking the open spot next to her, he climbs up to the next level of seats and sits behind her, his feet on the bleachers on either side of her hips, and leans forward.

“You cold?” he asks, arm settling on her shoulder so that his hand is dangling down over her chest.

“I’m good,” Beth gets out.

Beth hadn’t given much thought to how…intimate this position would feel after a few minutes. She can feel it every time that Rio shifts as they chat about nothing.

She realizes when Tasha must come into view because Rio slides forward so she’s almost pressed against his groin. “Lean back,” he murmurs, so she does. Except she’s not sure what to do with her hands now. Like he can hear her thoughts, Rio reaches down and takes both of her hands in his.

“Your ex isn’t very good at this huh,” Rio drawls, watching the action on the field. 

Beth opens her mouth to defend Dean, then stops herself. She doesn’t have to defend him. Well, she never did. But that’s even more true now that they’re broken up.

“Nope,” she agrees with him instead, smiling to herself when he laughs.

The game is long, but some of Rio’s friends show up at some point. They’re people that Beth has seen in the halls and knows by face, even if not by name. They all seem wary about her, except for the only other girl, who plops down right next to Beth and grabs her arm.

“Thank God, another girl,” she moans as someone - her boyfriend, Beth assume - sets up behind her the same way that Rio is sitting behind Beth.

Beth blinks. Tasha had hung out with Rio and his friends, hadn’t he?

“I’m Katrina,” she introduces herself.

“Beth.”

“Oh, I _know_ ,” Katrina says with a grin. And what’s that supposed to mean? “This is Tomas,” she gestures over her shoulder, “but he’s a man of very few words, so you probably won’t hear him say a thing.”

Beth looks up to Tomas, who shrugs and turns to say something to Rio in Spanish.

Katrina lets go of Beth in order to poke him in the knee. “Beth doesn’t know Spanish,” she tells him, “but I’m gonna be listening in on her behalf so don’t think you can say anything rude.” She scowls up at her boyfriend.

Beth has to laugh. There’s something about Katrina that reminds her of Annie and it makes it easy to talk with her as the game unfolds on the field.

“That’s my best friend,” Beth points to Ruby, who’s getting ready with the rest of the marching band.

“Bring her around too,” Katrina says. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was relieved that there’s another girl around. Tomas and Rio aren’t bad, but Nate? Ugh, it’s like he thinks that I want to hear him fart.”

Beth chokes on her laughter as she recalls what it had been like being around Dean and his friends. How much she’d longed to connect with some of the other girls dating the players.

It seems like the game is never going to end, but finally, the clock counts down to nothing and then Rio’s nudging Beth to stand and walking with her down the bleachers again.

“Sure you want to go to this?” Beth asks once they’re in his car. “Not really your scene.”

“Not really yours either, is it?” 

And fair point. Beth doesn’t really like parties all that much. 

It feels like now that she’s not wearing Rio like a jacket, she’s a little chilly despite wearing several layers. He must catch her shiver from the corner of his eye because he doesn’t start the car right away. Instead, he takes off his jacket and holds it out to her.

“You’ll be cold,” Beth tries to protest. He’s still got a hoodie on, but it hardly seems fair.

He just shakes his head. “I run warm.”

Beth still doesn’t take it.

Rio puts it in her lap. “Well, I’m not putting it back on,” he says, “so either you do or it just sits there.” He turns the key and starts to pull out of the parking lot, not saying anything when Beth tugs it on.

The party’s at Becca’s - another senior that Beth’s known since the third grade. So she notices when Rio drives in the opposite direction.

“Becca’s is that way,” she says, pointing back over her shoulder.

Rio glances at her. “I know.”

“So why aren’t we -“

“You always show up at parties on time?” Rio asks. “We’ll drive around for a bit, unless there’s somewhere else you wanted to go. Something you wanted to do.”

He waggles his eyebrows when they stop at a red light.

Beth’s not sure if he can tell that she’s blushing. Maybe, she hopes, he’ll think it’s the glow from the stoplight.

She looks away from him and her eyes catch on a familiar sign.

“There is something I want to do,” Beth says, biting her lip.

She catches Rio’s surprise and watches him shift in his seat. “Oh yeah?”

Beth turns her head so she’s facing him and nods.

“What’s that, Elizabeth?”

“Eat ice cream.”

There’s silence, then he laughs. “You were shivering like two minutes ago!”

Beth waves it off. “Best time to have ice cream. Plus, I feel like I’ve been a pretty cheap date so far. Least you can do is get me a dipped cone.”

“Yeah?” Rio asks, even as he turns into the Dairy Queen. 

She clears her throat, self-conscious at her use of the word date. “Well, even if we’re not really dating, I should probably get something out of this.”

“Messing with Boland’s not enough?” he asks, right before rolling his window down. He orders two dipped cones, then drives to the far end of the parking lot.

“Can’t even remember the last time I had one of these,” he says before he takes a bite out of the chocolate. 

“No?” Beth’s warming up the chocolate coating with her tongue, wanting to wear a hole in it. “Didn’t take Tasha out?” She’s not sure what makes her ask, but he just laughs.

“Nah. She said she didn’t like sweets much,” Rio shrugs, “we usually just fooled around.”

Beth stiffens.

“Relax,” he says, “I’m not expecting that from you. Although…”

“Although what?” Beth demands, licking the hole bigger as Rio turns in his seat so he’s facing her, leg up on the seat.

“We should probably practice,” he says. “Don’t want to kiss you at the party and have you freak out on me.”

“I’m not gonna freak out on you,” Beth says.

“I’m not sure I buy that, Elizabeth.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not? It’s your name.” Rio licks his ice cream. “You like Bethie more?” 

She can hear the derision in his voice. “You like it when Tasha baby talks you?” she shoots back.

Rio grins. “I put up with it.” Meaning he gets laid.

Beth rolls her eyes. “Is that all that guys think about? Having sex.”

He laughs. “You telling me you don’t think about it?”

Oh, she does. But she can’t say that her entire mind is fixated on it. “I’m not saying that,” she replies. “I’m just saying that I think about more than just that.”

“I do too,” he says. “Got plenty of thoughts.”

Rio’s teasing her, but Beth can’t help but feel like she wants to respond.

“Like what?”

“Like what I’m gonna do for my English assignment. What the fuck Mrs. Jennings’ problem is,” he starts to list things. “Whether or not I’m gonna be able to get back some of the hoodies that Tasha stole from me.”

“Isn’t your goal to get back with her?” Beth asks.

Rio shoots her a look. “What makes you think that?”

She stops eating her ice cream. “Why else would you want to make her jealous? And you said that you weren’t dating at the moment.”

He shrugs. “Maybe we get back together, maybe not. Maybe I’m tired of dealing with her drama.”

“Even if she’s willing to fool around?” Beth says, going back to her cone.

“Even then.”

Rio finishes his ice cream first, but only by a little.

“We kill enough time?” Beth asks, wiping her fingers on a napkin.

He makes no move to turn on the car. “I’m gonna kiss you now,” he declares. 

Beth means to tell him that it’s not necessary, but instead, she leans towards him until their lips meet in the middle. It only lasts a few seconds and when she pulls back, she thinks that just a few seconds of kissing Rio made her feel more than months of kissing Dean. She swallows and sits back in her seat again.

“Good enough?” she asks him, redoing her seatbelt.

He starts the engine. “It’s a start.” Beth looks at him and he grins. “But I’m thinking we’re going to be doing a different kind of kissing by the end of the night, Marks.”

They drive to Becca’s house in a not entirely uncomfortable silence, pulling into the front yard next to all the other cars.

Beth winces at the sight of the grass, but takes Rio’s hand when he holds it out again, leaving their jackets behind.

They aren’t inside long before Rio pulls her against his front, leaning into the wall. Beth’s got a beer, but he’d grabbed a water bottle from somewhere.

“I’ll drive you all the way home,” he says when they first arrive, “you wanna drink.”

But the beer’s just as full as it was when she took it. She’s learned that the best way not to get people to pester you about drinking was to pretend that you were.

Becca’s house is full of people and Beth can’t even begin to comprehend how she’s gonna get this all cleaned up.

“What about you, Beth?”

She looks up to find Rio’s friend Matt looking at her, seeming to wait for an answer. “Uh, sorry, what?”

Matt just laughs. “Distracted, huh?” He looks up at Rio, grinning. “You two took your time getting here.”

“Fuck off,” Rio says, pulling Beth’s hair back from her neck and pushing it all to one side. He lowers his head so he can speak right into her ear. “Sounds like your ex is nearby.”

Beth strains to hear what Rio’s talking about and it takes a second, but she hears one of Dean’s loud guffaws. Rio must do something because Matt sighs and fades back into party as Rio starts to kiss her neck.

“C’mere,” he murmurs into her ear. Beth turns slowly until she’s facing him. Hand on his chest, Beth looks up into his eyes and swallows. He doesn’t give her a chance to think about it, although she’s sure if she pushed him away, he’d be fine with it. His lips are pressing against hers lightly, then harder as he puts his hands on her ass and pulls her closer to him.

Beth gasps and he takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss as he slides his hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

“Bethie?”

Beth doesn’t even register that someone’s talking to her, Rio’s mouth feels so good on hers. She rubs her chest against him slightly and he grins into the kiss.

“Bethie?”

Rio pulls away long enough for Beth to catch a glimpse of Dean before he’s turning them so that Beth’s up against the wall now.

“Fuck off Boland,” he snaps, then lifts Beth up a little so he doesn’t have to bend down as much to align their mouths. 

Whether or not Dean tries to do anything else, Beth doesn’t notice, she’s so busy trying to keep a cool head, despite the lack of oxygen getting to her brain.

Beth doesn’t mean to let Rio keep kissing her once Dean’s seen them. She certainly doesn’t mean to lift her hand so that it’s wrapped around the back of his neck.

But she does and the kiss continues, deepens. Rio licks into her mouth and presses her into the wall.

“Fuck, man,” someone laughs, then claps him on the back, knocking him into Beth and breaking their kiss, “if you want to make a porn, you’re gonna need better lighting.”

Some people around them laugh, but Rio meets Beth’s eye briefly in a question - she nods that she’s okay - before turning towards the guy who spoke up.

“Doesn’t surprise me that you think _that’s_ a porn, Boomer.” He nearly spits the name and Beth realizes who made the joke. “Now fuck off before I make you.”

He turns back to Beth and bends a little. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

Beth takes his hand and lets him lead her through the party and out to his car. He even opens the door for her and shuts it once she’s inside.

“Take me home?” 

Rio nods and they’re quiet as he drives her back to his parent’s house where she left her car.

“Hey,” he says when she undoes her seatbelt but before she opens the car door. Beth lifts her head to look at him. She can’t really make out his expression. “Nothing,” he mutters, shaking his head and getting out of the car. He walks over to hers and kicks his feet against the pavement. “Text me when you get home, okay?”

It surprises Beth that he’s asked, but she nods. 

“Night, Elizabeth.”

She drives home, texting Rio a quick _Home_. He replies with a thumbs up and it makes Beth giggle. She hadn’t thought of Rio as someone who would use emojis. 

All’s well when she picks up Annie the next morning. Rio’s out - visiting his uncle, his mother explains. Beth wonders if it’s the same one that he works on his car with, but she doesn’t ask.

It’s all over school by Monday morning - Beth and Rio are an item. It rapidly gets out of hand, of course, until around lunchtime Beth swears that she hears someone say that people saw her and Rio screwing under the bleachers. She’s pissed at that one and turns to find who said it, but she didn’t recognize the voice, so it’s useless.

By the time she actually sees Rio at lunch, it’s because Katrina has ambushed her and Ruby, practically dragging them outside to where Rio and his friends spend their break. 

Rio lifts an eyebrow when he sees her, a skateboard in his hand. Then, he’s in motion, tossing the board down and getting a foot on it. Beth doesn’t know a thing about skateboarding, but she’s impressed when he and his board seem to jump up onto the railing.

“Shouldn’t they be wearing helmets?” Beth asks.

Katrina snorts. “Yes. They’re boys. Boys are stupid.”

That makes Ruby laugh and from there it’s a little easier to fall into a conversation. 

“We’re just outside the school’s property,” Katrina says when Ruby asks why no one’s getting them in trouble. “They stash the boards in Rio’s trunk. Nothing to get them in trouble for, is there?”

Beth nibbles on her sandwich as she watches Rio move. It’s a different kind of athleticism than what’s required in football, a gracefulness that she had never noticed in skateboarders before. He throws back his head and laughs when Ethan says something, then knocks shoulders with him before jumping back on the board and executing another trick.

She smiles when he lands safely back on the ground, only for him to turn his head to look right at her. Beth freezes, embarrassed to have been caught watching, but his lips just twitch.

“Aww,” Katrina coos, “you two are too cute.”

Ruby looks at Beth, a little less sure.

“Okay, spill,” Ruby demands when she and Beth head back to Beth’s place after school to do homework. “How the hell did that happen?”

Beth is bright red as she spills all of it. Rio proposing that they make their exes jealous together. Going to the party. Him kissing her.

“I can’t believe that you didn’t call me right away!” Ruby scowls, punching her lightly in the arm.

“You were at Stan’s!” Beth reminds her, putting an extra emphasis on the name. 

Ruby groans. “We were just getting ready for the game.”

“Uh huh,” Beth teases, “that’s what everyone’s calling it these days.”

———————————————————

“Party tonight,” Rio says on Friday. “I’ll pick you up at 8.”

He doesn’t give her a chance to say anything to that, but Annie’s already got an invitation to go to the neighbour’s house for the evening. If Beth asks, Mrs. Gregor will let Annie stay late. 

“Of course, Beth,” Mrs. Gregor agrees when Beth calls as soon as she gets home. “You know Annie’s welcome here. You are too.”

Beth kicks her foot against the baseboard in the hall and pretends that it’s just a nice, neighbourly offer that has nothing to do with her parents.

“Thanks, Mrs. G,” she says. “I’m not staying late, but we can’t start studying until Stan’s shift is over.”

There’s a decent chance that Mrs. Gregor knows that Beth is lying and that she’s heading to a party, not a study session, but Beth has always been responsible, so the older woman doesn't question her.

After dinner, she spends more time getting ready than she had for the football game. She puts on make-up. Does her hair. 

She’s just debating whether or not to use perfume when someone knocks on the door.

It’s a few minutes before eight, but a peek out of her bedroom window reveals that Rio’s here.

Grabbing her sweater, she races down the stairs before he can knock again and potentially wake up her mom. She pulls the door open right as he’s raising his fist.

“Hi,” she says, nearly shoving him out of the house and pulling the door shut behind her, locking up. 

“Hi,” he replies, a little bewildered by her response, it seems. 

“Ready to go?” she keeps her voice chipper as she leads him away from the house and Rio doesn’t protest.

Doesn’t say much of anything until he’s pulling off her street.

“Why’d you and Boland even break up?” Rio asks.

Beth looks at him in surprise. “You never asked that before.”

“No shit,” he says, “or I wouldn’t be asking it now.”

Beth sticks her tongue out at him. “He wanted to -“ she trails off.

“He wanted to hit that?” Rio supplies.

She’s not going to dignify that with a response.

“Yeah, you made the right call,” he says. “That’s a guy who doesn’t know what to do with a girl, let alone one like you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Beth isn’t sure if she should be offended.

“It means,” Rio says, “that you’re already out of here. You’re smart, certainly smarter than he is. You’re just running down the clock and then you’re gone.”

Beth shakes her head. “No I’m not. I can’t leave my sister.”

“Oh,” he says softly in understanding. “You get into schools?”

She nods. “I don’t think I can go,” she admits. “It’s expensive and even with scholarships…”

“So do it a different way.” 

Beth frowns at him.

“Don’t go straight to full time college. Do part time classes, work, stick around ’til your sister’s old enough to figure her own shit out, then transfer. That’s what my cousin did.”

Beth is surprised by how earnest he sounds. There’s no teasing undercurrent, no trying to insist that it’s not her job to look after Annie so why is she even doing it. He understands what's keeping her in place.

She falls quiet as Rio drives them to Jesse Romero’s house. 

Almost as soon as she gets out of the car, Beth starts to feel a little queasy. It looks like it’s probably already packed. She lifts her chin and starts towards the door.

“Hey,” Rio says, jogging a little to catch up to her. “You okay?”

Beth nods.

He pulls her to a stop. “What’s wrong, Elizabeth?”

“Nothing,” she starts to say, but someone comes around the side of the house, drowning her out.

“Rio!” 

Both of them turn to see Tasha, dressed up like she’s about to go clubbing in the city rather than a high school party, racing towards them. She moves surprisingly fast for the height of the heels she’s got and a few of her friends are following her.

“Rio,” she says, putting her hand on her chest and pouting, “I messed up, baby. I don’t know what I was thinking.” She reaches out for Rio, but he steps back, sliding his arm around Beth. Tasha’s pout slips, revealing a cool fury, before coming back. 

“Can we talk about this?” Tasha asks, tears building in her eyes.

Beth slips from Rio’s hold. “I’ll see you inside,” she tells him. “You should talk to her.”

Rio frowns and looks like he’s about to protest, but Beth heads up the front walk and into the house.

It’s as packed as she feared, but Ruby had texted that she’s in the living room, so Beth heads there.

She’s just passing through the kitchen when someone grabs her arm.

“Bethie!”

Beth looks over her shoulder at Dean and tugs her arm out of his grip.

“Don’t call me that,” she tells him calmly.

Dean looks confused. “Bethie, how long are you gonna drag this out?”

“Drag what out, Dean?” Beth says. People are looking at them now. “We’re not together.”

“There’s no reason for you to -“

“To what?” Beth snaps. “Show you that there’s consequences to your actions? That not everything in the world revolves around you? We aren’t together and we aren’t getting back together.”

“Why, because you’re with that guy?” Dean asks.

Beth just rolls her eyes.

“Because I saw him outside with Tasha,” he goes on, "and they were getting awfully close."

For a second, Beth wonders if they reconciled out there, if even now, Rio and Tasha are making up in the backseat of his car, leaving Beth to figure out a ride home.

No. He’s not. She knows it, even without having to see. 

“Even if I believed you,” Beth says, “that would still have nothing to do with you and me. Leave me alone, Dean.”

“Beth,” Dean starts to say, but Rio comes out of the crowd and steps in between him and Beth.

“Leave her the fuck alone, Boland,” he says.

“Or what?” Dean gets in Rio’s face.

For a second, she worries that one of them’s gonna swing a punch, but Rio just laughs. “I’m not the one you need to worry about, Boland,” he sneers. “Elizabeth is. Now get the fuck away from her.”

Beth grabs Rio’s hand, hanging loosely at his side and tugs him back, away from Dean.

“Come on,” she says loudly, “there’s too much noise in here.”

Rio lets her lead him out of the kitchen without turning his back on Dean until they’re in the living room and then he’s grabbing her and pulling her towards him.

Rio kisses her, hands trailing down her sides until he’s cupping her ass.

Beth kisses back.

“Let’s get outta here,” he says when they break apart.

Beth nods, hand still joined in Rio’s. She waves to Ruby, who shoots her a thumbs up from her spot over by the window. She’s sitting with Stan, the guy from band that she likes and Beth gasps, already tugging out her phone to send her a text full of exclamation marks. 

Thankfully, she’s got plenty of experience texting one handed, so she does that while Rio gets them back outside.

They’re at his car when Beth tugs him to a stop.

“What about Tasha?” she asks him. “What did she want?”

He grimaces. “She wanted to get back together.”

Beth lets go of his hand and shoves hers into her pockets. “That’s what you wanted, right?”

Rio looks back at the party, then at Beth. “Looks like Boland wanted to get back with you too.”

“I think I’d rather be single than go back to being with Dean,” she tells him. And it’s true. The past couple of weeks, even with the hurt she’d felt, had been freeing. Even more so once people stopped looking at her like they felt bad for her. Since Katrina started a group chat with her and Ruby to complain about boys and younger siblings. 

It’ll suck, she knows, if Rio gets back with Tasha because she actually _likes_ him. He listens to what she says and he talks to her like just having a conversation is enough, not like it’s him paying some kind of entrance fee to get into her pants. 

But she doesn’t need him. 

“Weird,” Rio says, “I told Tasha the same thing.”

Beth’s eyes widen a little and she can’t resist making a joke. “You’d rather be single than getting back together with Dean?”

Rio laughs. “You know what I meant,” he says, stepping towards her.

“So I guess we don’t need to date anymore,” Beth says, even as she reaches out to touch his hand again.

“Guess we don’t,” he agrees, twisting their fingers together. “Was kinda hoping you’d want to keep going out with me anyway.”

Beth grins. “I’d like that.”

“Good,” Rio declares, “‘cause I wasn’t really gonna let you go.” 

He kisses her in front of Jesse Romero’s house on a Friday night and even though he’s done it before, Beth decides that this is their first kiss.

————————————

Emma looks at Beth. “That’s how you and Daddy met?” she asks, incredulous. “Daddy says that he stole you off a guy.”

“Does he now?” Beth pulls Emma into her lap. 

Emma nods. “You guys are boring,” she says. “Cassidy’s parents met at Disney World.”

Beth smiles, ruffling Emma’s hair. She’s just given her the bare bones version of her and Rio’s dating history, which is basically that they started dating in high school, but one day, she’ll tell her the whole story - from Rio’s proposition to her telling Dean she didn’t want to get back together. The brief period where they'd broken up the summer after Rio graduated high school. How he'd helped her and Annie move out of their parents' house despite that, resulting in Beth kissing him. The years they'd dated, gotten married, had kids. She might be biased, but she’s pretty sure that it’s better than Disney World.

The front door opens and the noise level skyrockets.

Emma makes a face.

“Your brothers take after your father,” Beth laughs, kissing her forehead. 

“I heard that,” Rio calls out, walking into the family room with two three-year-olds hollering and squirming in his arms. He lets go of them and both of the boys come running over to Beth and try to plaster themselves to her as she laughs, kissing them on the cheeks as Rio walks over more slowly to join their little family.

"Hi," he says, bending down to kiss her.

"Hi," Beth tells her husband.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Vitamin C's Graduation (Friends Forever). Unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine. If there's anything that you think should be warned for, please let me know. Also I am a sap so I added in an epilogue to be like THEY DIDN'T PEAK IN HIGH SCHOOL DON'T WORRY.


End file.
